The Circus

Dent sighed and laid his head back, then smiled at Lark. "Thanks," he whispered.

She nodded curtly, then bit her lip, like she was going to say something important.

"Thank you," he said again. "You're the greatest sister ever..." he sighed. "I wish we really were brother and sister...don't you?"

Flip-

I couldn't believe it. Dent had my pistol that I had lost. But I couldn't just go up to him and ask for it back. I would just have to wait for an opportunity to steal it back. But right now I had to go over and clean the animals cages while they were in the ring.

Chase

I arrived in the big top late, as always. Whatever Rusty had wanted me to help with was, no doubt, already done. I looked around. There were less people than I'd expected. Dent, Kaiya, Lark and Adeline were all missing. I frowned, looking over at Flip, "Where is everyone?"

"Dent hurt himself, and Lark and Kaiya were helping him back to his tent. Kaiya got back just a bit before you got here, and her and Adeline went out just a little while ago."

Adeline was already out there? Well, it was about time I showed a little backbone. I grinned a little to myself - it seemed so ironic. She liked me for my apparent bravery in standing up to Rusty, and here I was, terrified of her clothes while she walked on a tightrope.

I smoothed back my hair a little, just in case she decided to look my way, and then looked out a little. Kaiya was still on, Adeline wasn't out yet. But Kaiya looked like she was just about finished. The one thing I was worried about was who was on next. I'd never watched the show before, for this very reason. It could be Adeline who'd come out next. On the other hand, it could be the clowns.

Lark

I smiled weakly. "You know how you got to the circus? You know how you all have a pretty good idea about how most of us came to this nasty place?"

Dent smiled a bit and nodded.

"Well, my birth name was Sophia Lansky. I'm here because my parents and village didn't love me any more. I was a part of a Puritan village. I was always singing and dancing and I'd suddenly say stuff like, "Oh, Mother, someone's going to visit today!' and she'd stick her head out the window and see no one. But later on that day, sure enough, someone would come. All of those things are considered vanity and witchcraft in a Puritan's eyes.

"So they sent me to Father Delantrees, our minister, for a week to see if he could break me into being sensible. They thought I had repented my sins but just a few days later I was singing and dancing and making predictions like before. They tried sending me to an adult service to see if I could follow what everyone else did. Nope. They tried everything. They even baptized me three times! Nothing worked.

"So when I was a few days from turning 8, they shunned me from the village. My mother, my father, the people I called friends and neighbors. They didn't talk to me, look at me or anything. My mother wouldn't even feed me some nights! They forgot my birthday and all that went on for about a month until I finally ran away. I never saw them again. Rusty found me in an abandoned alleya few days later. He called me Lark and now I've almost completely forgot my birth name from the people that shunned me."

I finished and Dent looked at me, his mouth open a bit.

"Well, Rusty's screaming for me so I've gotta go. Feel better and thanks. I needed to get that off my chest," I whispered to him.

Then I just leaned over and kissed him in a little more than 'thank you'. I was shocked that I did and so was he but I bustled out the door and through the side to the ring.

Adeline~

I waited as Kaiya got finished. She was good. I could never do what she did, I would end up breaking something. Once she was done I cartwheeled into view as I was supposed to. I smiled and waved at the crowd as Rusty introduced me.
Walking over to the tightrope I saw Chase peeking out. I smiled brightly. He was watching. I was tempted to wave but Rusty would've killed me. I climbed up the tall ladder leading to the rope. When I got to the top I set my ballet slipper-ed foot on to the rope and put my arms out. Everyone ooed and awed as I got to the middle. When I was about 2 feet away from the end I faked a slip that got a few screams out of the crowd. I smirked and leaped onto the other platform.
I got down from the rope and took my bow then ran out of view as The clowns started to come out shouting and squeezing horns. I stopped running when I came up to Chase.
"You watched," I said stupidly.

Kaiya

She stepped backstage, her act was over. Kaiya made her way to the tent Dent was in.

"Dent, can I talk to you?"

Dent eagerly propped himself on one elbow to look at her. "Yeah, sure!" he said. "Of course you can!"

Kaiya

“I'd like to talk about a few things, but first, the gun? Why, did you have a gun?”

Dent smiled weakly. "Do we have to talk about that?"

Kaiya nodded.

"Well...I found it in the Gunner's tent. Figured it was one of his. The man has a lot; he shouldn't miss it too much. Haven't quite decided what to do with it, yet. Maybe shoot Rusty."

Kaiya frowned.

"Shooting Rusty won't do anything good for anyone." She said. There was a silence, then she changed the subject. "I think I understand how you feel, about Cowboy.."

Dent cut across her. He didn't want to talk about Cowboy, not now. "Shooting Rusty will help everyone," he insisted. "We can all escape, no more kids can be enslaved, and I get the simple satisfaction of killing him."

Kaiya

"Damn it Dent, your wrong." She grabbed his Arm and pulled him back. "We wouldn't escape. The body would be found, we would be hunted. Then what? Hm?"

Dent gasped. "OW!!"

She pulled back. "Sorry, forgot."

He ignored the apology. "He seems keen on being burned, and that would also be satisfying. And anyway, who's to say it was one of us? There has already...already been one murder here before, and it couldn't have been one of us. And, even if we were caught, it'd be easy to talk out of it."

Kaiya

"And where would we go? Back home? Half of us were disowned and sold! Anyways, its not like you get aim well with only one good arm."

Dent sighed and laid back. He had forgotten about that.

"Well...." he thought about it. Where could they go? No gypsies. They'd sell them again to another circus..."Well..." He was struck with a sudden idea and sat up. Way too fast. He laid back down, but still talked excitedly. "We could make our own little brigand! We can look after each other! Anyone who could survive this circus can survive anything! Just like a gypsie camp, except....more loyal."